Different idea for water flow.

[Rossco]

Hi all,
I'm just wondering about using a wave box nano I impulse bought to create a scrubber. It isn't much use for anything else. Any thoughts?
Looking at the horizontal type. The wave line at the beach seems to grow the most green.
I should also mention I have been looking at this site with great interest for some time now. I'm hooked on the idea of turf for nutrient removal and would like to experiment a little. If I say something that sounds stupid, it's just ignorance. That bit I'm working on.
Thanks for your time.

[kcress]

I think a wave box feeding a horizontal screen would be an excellent method!

My only concern would be the frequency. Most wave boxes run ridiculously fast. Whatever you do you need time for the turf to drain between surges. If you don't assure this you will have very stagnate flow across the turf. It just won't work. I would estimate you need a surge rate of no faster than 5 to 8 seconds minimum.

[AlgaeNator]

If you have room, maybe make the box longer, so the water has longer contact with the screen...might work?

[herring_fish]

I designed a horizontal, low profile, dump bucket style, algae scrubber. May tank is 6 feet long and 130 gallon. I calculated the screen surface area that I needed for my tank and came up with the dimensions for the screen. I ended up with a 4 foot scrubber that is 6 inches wide but is only about 3 inches deep. The lights are about 2 inches away from the surface and I picked a 30 second cycle time just because I liked it. I put the bucket one foot up in the air because I like the splash.

A lot of these scrubber designs are dictated by the space constraints so that is why mine is shaped like it is. I agree that in your case, if you have the room, longer would be better. I also agree that surge in the scrubber is very beneficial. According to studies, the efficiency goes up by 50% with good surge. One sided screen or two, you need enough total surface area, lots of light and surge.

[kcress]

herring_fish; We need pictures!

[herring_fish]

You can see a lot about my scrubber at my web site (non-commercial I don’t sell anything). There is a photo realistic rendering of my old tank and some old articles that I wrote about it.
http://asaherring.com

It was a very low profile design, with the bucket and lights fitting under a 6 inch hood in the back and more lights were under the 2 inch front. There was no sump or fuge because there was no room.

You can also see a lower resolution rendering of the preliminary plans for my new tank set up. I do not yet have the fridge or dosing pump but you can get the idea.

Here are a couple of links to the newly re-used dump bucket that is still in the set up stage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARl3jzpVd0g

A little closer ..just the splash
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRoKX8AjEbI

I should have started a separate new thread a long time ago. I have been following Santa since he invited me to his thread on another site. I started using a horizontal scrubber in about 1990 or 91 as I was reading Dr. Adeys book. It had a dump bucket to stimulate growth but since the scrubber was under the tank, it didn’t add to the aesthetic of the tank.

Version 2 is the low profile tank set up mentioned at the top of the post. It provided a splash that I found nice to look at but being right on top of the tank, it was anemic. Version 3 is the same dump bucket but it is one foot up in the air. I moved it higher and lower until I found what was best for me…with the door closed. I like the sound level where it is now. It is soothing. Others may find it too loud but with the door closed, it’s just right for me and my family. Check it out.

[kcress]

Wow that is a Looooooong bucket. Looks pretty cool. I think that a bucket like that is one of the only ways to run a horizontal TS that is really shallow. The wave aspect will run the water across the entire turf. My very shallow horizontal continuous TS is starting to show issues with the building turf shadowing the turf that's farther down the screen from nice turbulent flow.

A dump method would actually allow less light as the light is having to shine thru water only during a wave. It would also allow far less water flow so you can have a smaller pump supplying the TS while effectively wetting all the turf.

The bucket method does look like splash/salt-creep city, especially since my relatively benign constant flow setup is even a spritz problem.

[herring_fish]

Splash is definitely something that I had to consider when I was designing this set up. As it is, I have never had to clean salt in the 9 month that it has been running. The water comes from the bucket, into the tube and down. It self cleans with every cycle.

That end of the tank is covered for the first foot. Actually, instead of Plexiglas, I have simply uses wide clear duck tape for now. I have too many projects to get anything done. This flat barrier stops the bubbles from cause the creep. Between the tube and the tape, there isn’t any creep at all.